Many aspects of modern life require the delivery of, or exchange of, information. In the past, information has generally been stored on paper records. And, when the information is to be delivered elsewhere, or exchanged with other information, paper records are forwarded or recreated.
While use of paper documents is, of course, an acceptable and workable manner by which to store and forward information, the development of electronic storage elements provides for the storage of data in electronic form and provides many opportunities related to information storage and transfer. Storage elements that provide for the storage of data in electronic form are, in many instances, of very small dimensions while still permitting storage of very large amounts of data. And, as technologies progress, the storage elements in which data is storable shall likely continue to permit ever increasing amounts of data to be stored in storage elements of increasingly reduced dimensions. The ability to store amounts of data previously requiring large bundles of paper when stored in paper form is already possible. As storage capacities increase, the capability to store even greater amounts of data shall be possible.
Medical and financial records, for instance, are storable in electronic form in electronic storage elements. When an electronic storage element at which such data is stored is non-volatile or requires only nominal amounts of energy to maintain the stored data, the storage elements are easily constructed to be of dimensions permitting their hand carriage. For instance, a storage element is supportable upon a substrate, such as a card member of dimensions corresponding to the dimensions of a typical credit or charge card. Data pertaining to a subject, such as the subject's medical or financial information, once stored at the storage element, is easily carriable by the subject. When subsequently needed, the data is accessed and used, as needed. Much greater amounts of data are able easily to be carried by the subject than when the data is embodied in paper form.
Various issues arise, however, when large amounts of potentially sensitive information of a subject is stored electronically in an electronic storage element and carried by the subject, the subject might well not want the stored data easily to be accessible. A storage mechanism, capable of storing data pertaining to a subject in electronic form while also permitting limited access to the stored data is, accordingly, needed.
It is in light of this background information related to the storage of data that the significant improvements of the present invention have evolved.